UCP recalls are the stink bomb no one wanted

By Lethbridge Herald on November 28, 2025.

Scott Sakatch
Herald Editor

In Thursday’s Herald, the daily poll question asked readers if they thought Albertans should ignore the current recall effort against 14 (for now) UCP MLAs and just wait until the next provincial election to have their say. As you can see on Page A6 today, a slim majority of respondents (57 percent) said no, we shouldn’t ignore the recalls, while the other 43 percent said wait until the election.

Personally, I’m in the majority here and I believe that we should definitely not ignore the recall petitions that have been popping up this fall. But the reasoning behind my choice might be surprising to readers, given my history of going after the UCP government in my columns.

First off, I believe in elections. They are a sacred right and responsibility to choose who makes decisions on our behalf in government. As the saying goes, elections have consequences, and I firmly believe that we need to accept those consequences as a responsibility that comes with our right to vote (or not vote, as the case may be). Our cousins south of the border are learning that lesson the hard way right now, but I won’t get into that here.

Secondly, I believe the recall petitions are, for lack of a better term, a Mickey Mouse attempt to overturn the results of a free and fair election. Most of them have very little depth and don’t offer anything even remotely close to a compelling case to recall the politicians at which they’re aimed. Simply disagreeing with an elected representative’s decision is not a reason to recall them and force a by-election to replace them. If it were, we’d have recalls everywhere, all the time, for just about everything because, as history has shown, none of us can agree on anything anymore. We’re also drowning in single-issue hot button activists who think their beliefs are the only ones that matter and God help you if you believe otherwise. It would be chaotic, not to mention insanely expensive, to have a constant series of by-elections based on such flimsy reasoning.

But as I said,  I don’t believe we should ignore these recall efforts. In fact, I believe the opposite: we should be making a very big deal about them and highlighting every single new petition that crosses the desk of Elections Alberta. Why? Simple: because to me, this isn’t about recalls at all. It’s about reaping what you sow, and taking responsibility for your actions.

Remember, these recalls are only possible because of legislation brought in six years ago by the UCP itself under former Premier Jason Kenney. They themselves were the ones who felt the need to make it easier to overturn the results of an election. Why? I have no clue, just like I have no clue why they felt the need to rescind their own moratorium on coal mining, which has resulted in lawsuits from coal companies that cost the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. And yet they did that, too. But I digress.

Let me make an analogy: say you’re an employee and you’ve been asked by your management team to pick up lunch for their meeting. But instead of food, you show up with a stink bomb and tell everyone at the party that they should be focusing on that instead of on the meal they were expecting. Not only have you not doen what was expected of you by your bosses (ie: your voters), you’re also practically begging those people to angrily yank that stink bomb out of your hands and throw it back at you. At the very least, you can expect to be hauled into the office and reprimanded, with a letter placed in your file for being incredibly bad at your job.

These recalls are that stink bomb being lobbed back at the UCP, and they had best take note. Elections have consequences, and so do pointless laws that no one asked for or wants. 

If they want to keep their government, they need to start putting a great deal more serious thought into their jobs before the next performance review.